


The Sun Dog

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Extra Treat, F/M, Horror, Minor Character Death, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M, forced to work together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-06 22:25:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12827394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Finn and Rey, with their semi-prisoner Kylo Ren, attempt to meet up with the Resistance on a planet that has been taken over by monsters.





	The Sun Dog

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Vivien](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vivien/gifts).



The weird thing was....

Okay, no. That implied there was only one weird thing. Finn found himself surrounded by so many weird things at the moment he was sure he only kept his head from drowning by floating on a sea of weird. Rey had been gone a long time, longer than he'd anticipated and much longer than he'd hoped. The last he'd seen of her, she'd been thrown against a tree and lay sprawled unconscious in the snow, and Finn himself had fully expected to die as soon as his ex-boss got finished with him.

Instead, he'd awakened alive and mending, and Rey was already gone, off to search for someone Finn would have sworn was a legend a few days before while the legend's sister rolled her eyes at Finn, praised him for helping win the day, then offered him a job. Rey had stayed gone for months, might still have been gone even now had Finn not grabbed the first ship he could as soon as her beacon arrived at the Resistance base, and he hadn't waited for permission to leave. He was probably going to be fired for this. He'd like to think it was worth it.

But Rey was different now. He'd only known her for a couple of days, yet the tense, mistrustful, brave, brilliant, perfect girl he remembered had been replaced by a woman whose eyes did not quite gaze back at him. That first day, Rey had looked at him in annoyance and exasperation and relief, and when they'd found each other on Starkiller Base, she'd looked at him with undiminished joy and affection. Now she looked through Finn like he was smoke obscuring her vision.

"What have you done to her?" Finn wanted to ask of their passenger, but there was even less help there.

Rey's distress signal had brought him to a ruined planet, home to a long-ago battle Finn had never heard of and didn't care about. In the ancient rubble, he'd located her damaged ship, and he'd almost shot her prisoner before she talked him down.

"It's fine. He's not the same as he was."

That much was obvious. Kylo Ren sat now on the uncomfortable floor of the shuttle, arms wrapped around his long legs, silent and watchful. Occasionally, he twitched or blinked, the only signs of whatever inner war he fought while his outward body rested. He had to be the reason why Rey's eyes had stopped reflecting Finn's face when she looked at him, and instead reflected distant starlight. Ren must have done something to her.

But he was their prisoner, and she was piloting the shuttle, and this was not how Finn had ever dreamed their reunion would go.

Ignoring Ren, Finn returned to the co-pilot's chair. "The last I heard, you were off looking for Luke Skywalker. You had the _Millennium Falcon_. What happened?"

"A lot of things." She sounded so tired. "Luke is with Chewbacca. We were separated. I can sense him. I may be able to find him if he wants to be found." Nothing she said made sense to Finn except the first part.

"And the reason we can't airlock the guy who almost killed me is?"

She turned, and despite the blue of hyperspace, the stars were in her eyes again. "Because I asked you not to kill him."

Finn sat back in the chair. "We can't just bring him to the base. If he's been tracked, the First Order will know where we're hiding, and if he's spying, they'll definitely know."

"He's not spying." The surety in Rey's voice did nothing to dispel the lack of confidence in Finn's gut. "He might be tracked, though." She punched coordinates into the navcomp. "Our next jump will take us here," she said, pulling up a star chart. Finn stared at it blankly. Rey took pity on him, and for a moment, the twinkle in her eyes was kindness instead. "Aurilon. Small population. We can contact the Resistance and have someone meet us there."

"To take me into custody?" It was the first he'd spoken since they'd boarded the shuttle, since Finn had landed in the ruins. Without the voice modulator in his helmet, or the mad snarl he'd shouted at Finn last in the snow, Ren sounded dangerously human. Dangerous, because despite knowing his family history, Finn was sure he was nothing more than a monster wearing human skin.

Rey replied, "To decide what to do with you. You can give them your information."

"They won't believe me."

"No," Finn said. "You'll be lucky if they don't shoot you on sight to be safe."

"No one is shooting anyone," Rey said, "I'll make sure of it." Maybe Ren had taught her the blaster bolt trick because Finn believed her.

He wanted to ask her what was going on, why she hadn't sent any messages during her time with Luke, what in heaven's name she was doing traveling with their worst enemy. More than that, he wanted to ask if she was all right, if they were all right. But her eyes held the stars again, and Finn didn't care to ask his questions in front of that enemy.

The weird thing was everything.

* * *

They dropped out of hyperspace not far from the planet. Rey let Finn handle the communications as she brought their ship around, searching for the best place to land and wait for their rendezvous.

No one answered, no matter how many times he hailed them.

"I don't get it," he said. "I thought this world was inhabited."

"It was," said Ren, joining them in the cockpit area, and pointing towards the signs of a city. Was. Before Finn could ask, Ren turned to Rey. "Can you sense it?"

"Yes."

"What's going on?" Finn asked, turned between them.

Rey said, "There's no one alive down there."

"But there's a city."

"Yes," said Ren, his head turned, watching out the viewport thoughtfully. "Someone built it and they are dead now." His tone remained casual, like it didn't matter. To him, it probably didn't.

Finn said, "We should go. We'll meet the Resistance somewhere else."

"No," Rey said, her own voice firm. "Something happened down there. We need to investigate. The next ship coming in won't be able to sense what's happened before they land. We can."

"We know what happened," Ren said. "They died."

"And I want to know why."

For a second, annoyance and more crossed Ren's face, like he was ready to fight her. Finn had a blaster but if any of them reached for a weapon now, they'd wind up cracking the hull of their own ship, and they'd be dead, too. The fight left Ren's shoulders. "Fine." He threw himself to the floor more gracefully than Finn would have expected, sitting in the same place as before, impatient as a cat.

"Find me the docks," she told Finn, as she brought the ship in.

Without anyone to hail, the autoextend from the docks didn't activate. Rey was forced to land their ship in an open space inside the city, a green field set aside for a park. She ran an atmospheric scan, checking for known toxins and airborne viruses, and came up clean.

"In theory, it's safe," she said, but she looked at Ren rather than Finn for confirmation.

"In reality, there are a lot of dead people out there," he said. "I'll stay here."

"And take the ship while we're out there?" Finn asked. "I don't think so."

"If I'd wanted your ship, I could have overpowered you while we were in hyperspace."

"No, you couldn't have," said Rey, donning a face mask and passing one to Finn. "You can stay here if you're scared."

Ren glared at her, then took the pilot's chair. "I'll keep the engines ready on the off-chance you return alive."

Rey and Finn stepped outside the ship. The sun was high and hot, and the air was warm like what he'd thought a perfect summer's day would feel like. Even through the filters of their masks, a smell permeated the park, and he could practically see the miasma lurking over the chrome and glass buildings of the city.

Finn wished he'd stayed back on the ship.

"Come on," said Rey. Blaster comfortingly in his grip, he followed her as they made their way towards the closest building. There were no bodies in the park, he saw as they walked, but the grass was dotted with scorch marks.

"What happened here? Were they attacked?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Her voice remained firm, outraged that something had come to this place and killed people she'd never met. The girl he'd met back on Jakku was kind to others, but the woman beside him radiated with a level of righteousness on behalf of other people he'd never seen in anyone before. It must be a Jedi thing.

The buildings had automatic electronic sensors, and opened before them silently. The power was still on in places although the overhead lights were out. The smell was much worse inside. Finn could only imagine how bad it would be without the mask. Rey led them up the moving stairs into the darkness.

"Are you sensing something?" He wasn't sure how to ask. Rey didn't reply, shining her pocket torch on the floor. More scorches. The beam moved on, and found a sad, half-burnt pile. Finn turned away, determined not to lose his breakfast. "Ugh."

Rey went closer, bending down to see. He made himself watch, though he couldn't make himself join her. There was an odd mixture of compassion and detachment on her face, as though she felt deeply sorry for the person this had been but in an absent way, like she would for someone in a history reel. Jedi.

"I've never seen anything like this," she said. "Have you?"

Finn made himself walk over, every step more difficult. He leaned over, breathing through his mouth. "No. It doesn't look like blaster burns, not even a laser cannon." His training kicked into gear. "See, the cauterization pattern would be completely different. This burned for a long time."

His stomach betrayed him. He made his way to a wall and ripped off his mask before losing it. Cold sweat covered his forehead, and embarrassment rushed through him. He didn't like anyone to see him this way, much less the woman he was fairly sure he loved.

He wiped his mouth and hurried put his mask back on, but the smell was still there and would stay.

As he rejoined her, he expected pity in her starry eyes but found only concern. "Will you be all right?"

"Yeah. Sorry about that."

"Don't be sorry. It's a very human reaction." She said the words like she wasn't entirely human herself, and whether or not she had some alien history in her DNA, he was sure she was becoming something else. "We can't do anything else for this poor soul but I hate leaving the body."

"I can vaporize it," he said, and he changed the setting on his blaster. They ought to say some words. People said words over bodies. But he didn't know any. Rey nodded. He fired. It was the only decent thing left to do.

Rey said, "I imagine the rest of the planet is much like this. I'm not sure I want to know what did it to them."

They opened more doors, looking for clues. They found piles of ash, and another two half-burnt bodies which Rey examined before Finn vaporized the remains.

Rey touched her comlink. "We've found the remains of several people but no one alive. Do the scanners show anything?"

There was a long pause. _"There's one life sign further in the city. I can't tell if it is one of the inhabitants, or the thing that killed them. Do you feel lucky?"_

"Give me the coordinates."

They left the building, heading towards the place Ren told them about. Finn didn't like this plan. Ren could be sending them into a trap, or worse, but he knew they had to check. If there was a survivor of this strange catastrophe, they had to help. It wasn't just what Jedi did. It was what anyone would do.

"Why are you trusting him?" It wasn't the question he'd meant to ask, but it was the one they were betting their lives on now.

Rey looked away. "I just do." She chewed her lip, uncomfortable.

"Rey."

"I saw inside Kylo's head, Finn. It's awful in there, believe me. But I saw who he wanted to be. He won't betray me. I'm sure of it."

"You saw? You mean, you read his mind?"

"Yes, and he read mine. I can't explain to you how it works. I didn't want it to work, not at first, but we couldn't stop it. We were fighting, and then, we weren't."

Rey left holes in her words, chasms of space, and Finn saw for the first time what his heart had suspected since he'd found them together, no longer enemies. She'd managed to bond somehow with her once-enemy. Finn was positive that she'd slept with him, too.

There was no time to be jealous or angry, though he could feel both threatening. "You think he's safe."

"No, I think he can't hurt me because it would hurt himself, and he's too selfish for that." Her eyes were far away again. "Well, you are. Don't deny it."

"He can hear you now?"

She nodded. "I didn't know how to tell you."

"Great." He'd worried that they couldn't take Ren back to the base, but if he'd dug his way into the space behind Rey's eyes, they couldn't take her back either. Another problem they'd have to deal with when they gout out of here.

They approached the location Ren had told them about. "After you," Finn said with a gesture.

Rey opened the door, and lit her lightsaber. "Hello!" she called.

A low moan came from an upper floor.

"Hurry," she said, and they raced up the immobile stairs. Finn expected to slow down for her to keep pace. He'd been physically trained for years, and the Resistance kept him in shape. Rey dashed ahead of him, to his surprise.

They flashed their torches around the dim corridor. When the light struck the collapsed figure at the end, it let out a scream. Rey quenched her light, but nodded to Finn to keep his lowered.

"We're here to help," she said, kneeling by the poor guy. Finn didn't recognize the species: just another bipedal near-human, only this one was missing two limbs and the rest of him looked pretty bad, too. "We have a medikit back on our ship. We'll take you there."

Finn didn't think a medikit would help, but he attached his torch and blaster to his belt, then helped Rey shoulder the wounded alien.

"What happened here?" Rey asked as they made their painful way down the darkened stairs.

The man moaned and shuddered. He said something that Finn didn't catch.

"What was that?"

He didn't speak. Instead, as they descended, Finn became aware of a growing red light. Sunset? But the sun had still been high when they'd entered the building.

"Tell me that's Kylo Ren," he said to Rey, but she shook her head.

They heard a crackling sound, like electricity, and a long, low growl coming up the stairs towards them. The instantly changed their direction, heading back up, the dead weight of the alien between them.

"The Sun Dog," he said, and he never spoke again.

The creature bounded up the stairs, filling the darkened building with crimson and golden fire, the growls growing louder as it neared them. They had to run, but there was no where to run, even if they weren't carrying someone.

It crested the top of the stairs, a huge beast that filled the space with magnesium-bright fire, and an eerie rainbow halo at the edges of the light, which Finn could just make out from the black spots in his streaming eyes. He shoved the alien at Rey and pulled out his blaster. "Run," he said through a closed throat, too scared to shout. He started firing.

The blasts did nothing to slow the onslaught. He felt the furnace heat of the monster approaching him. He was going to die, scorched to a crisp like the rest of the beings of this city.

Red light flashed, dimmer than the Sun Dog's glow. The monster barreled his way, falling to the floor separated from its head. Kylo Ren stood beside it, panting, the black of his clothes steaming from the proximity to the Sun Dog's heat. Finn stared at the creature's head, his attention drawn to the quills radiating out. They looked metallic and sharp, like stinging electrodes.

Ren turned to Rey. They didn't say a word but Finn was sure they were communicating. She turned and gently sat the alien down.

"His heart gave out when he saw it again," she said, closing the poor man's eyes and folding the stalks of his arms over his chest. "I'm sorry, my friend."

"You knew to come," Finn said to Kylo Ren.

"I saw the unusual readings on the scanner heading this way. You're welcome."

"Yeah, thanks."

Ren nodded brusquely. He turned back to Rey. "There's no one left alive here, and we know why. We need to go now. I saw other readings."

"What do you mean, other readings? You just killed the Sun Dog."

Finn heard more growls outside. "Maybe it had puppies."

Rey took his blaster and vaporized the remains of the alien. "We'll go. We can set a warning beacon in orbit."

The three of them made their way down the stairs, two lightsabers and a blaster at the ready. Already there were glimmers of too-bright light coming in through the windows. "They can sense us somehow," said Rey.

"They're hungry," Ren said. "We're meat."

"Let's change the menu," said Finn. Outside the windows, they could see half a dozen of the bright, crackling monsters. Get trapped between them, and they'd burn up without ever touching.

"Back door?" Rey suggested.

"Always a good plan," said Ren, and the three of them ran for it as the windows crashed inwards. The interior was lit only by the two lightsabers and the growing light from behind them. Finn stumbled once, and Rey helped him through.

"You okay?" He nodded. She took his hand. "This way."

They found a door towards the back side of the building. It was locked, but Ren sliced half a circle as Rey sliced the other, and they pushed it out with the Force. "Nice," Finn said.

"One of my teachers loved that trick."

Rey paused halfway through the hole. "Luke was your teacher."

"He wasn't the only one." He waited for Finn to exit, and then came out behind him. They were in an alley. The far end glowed red-gold. They made their way quietly to the other end. Rey peered out, then waved.

They got two blocks before the Sun Dogs bayed at them, catching their scent. The howls and growls came from all sides. The three of the broke into a run, heading towards the park and the ship.

It shouldn't have been surprising that their path was cut off by three huge Sun Dogs, with the rest of the pack coming behind them. "We can jump," Ren said, holding his lightsaber and crouching. "We should be able to get past them."

"I can't jump that high," Finn said. He also wasn't so sure about the physics of Ren's idea. Heat rose. Even leaping past them, the air above the creatures would be superheated, cooking them alive.

"We'll fight our way through," Rey said, and stepped forward. Finn leveled his blaster at the monsters in front of them, not that his blaster would do any good. Ren kept a step behind them, turned towards the creatures stalking them from where they'd come. From here, Finn could make out the quill-electrodes covering the bodies of the burning Sun Dogs, filling the air immediately surrounding them with white-hot plasma, and around that, a corona of fire.

The lead Dog bounded at them. Rey met it with her saber, slicing its front limbs. The creature howled and fell. Finn shot it, and this time, the blasts landed, killing it.

One down, way too many to go.

Behind them, Ren slashed at another Sun Dog that had come up to him. The heat from behind and in front baked the air. 

The three of them moved forward. The remaining two monsters before them growled at Rey and both jumped at her at the same time. She swung out her blade, only catching one, which almost landed on her, wounded and snarling at her. The second landed between them. Finn fired again and again, backing away instinctively from the raw heat. He felt his skin shrinking on his bones and screamed as the Dog lashed out at his leg. He fell. He was going to die.

Ren spun from where he faced the Dogs behind them to attack the one advancing on Finn. The pack closed in, bringing fire as the lightsabers swung out desperately red and blue fighting against the gold.

Rey reached out her free hand. Ren grabbed it. Their eyes filled with stars.

Finn felt the burst of energy wash through him harmlessly, but the wake crashed into their attackers in a circular wave of raw Force power emanating from where the pair stood, shoving the Sun Dogs back with howls and whines.

"Run," Rey said, and instantly saw that Finn couldn't run. She grabbed his arm, and Ren grabbed his other arm, just as they'd carried the alien. Finn didn't dare look down in case he did and saw his leg was gone. He was in a lot of pain.

They hobbled towards the ship as fast as they could. Finn fell to the deck when they got inside. Rey jumped into the pilot's seat, lifting them off the moment the engines caught. Below them, the Sun Dogs bayed for them, but they were in the sky now, heading off into the clear blue sky. 

Finn lay there trembling as Rey checked the navcomp. Ren readied a small satellite beacon, placing the warning on all frequencies. They set it adrift in orbit before Rey took them into hyperspace.

Ren came to the back of the shuttle first. "Let me look," he said, and without asking, he grabbed the hem of Finn's trouser leg and ripped it up to his knee. Finn risked a peek. Everything was still attached, but it looked bad and felt worse. The only reason he wasn't moaning was because he refused to cry in front of Kylo Ren.

"I may be able to fix this," Ren said. "Rey, come here."

Rey finished setting their course, another destination, another attempt at meeting up with the Resistance. She made a worried face. "We've got to get that treated. If it swells, he could lose the leg."

Ren reached his hand out to her. She took it, then placed her other hand against Finn's knee. She gave Finn a comforting smile. "Luke showed me this. I used it for a broken foot but I think it'll work."

"More Jedi stuff?"

"Not Jedi," Ren said with a glower. "The Force isn't just Jedi. It can be a lot of things."

"Philosophy later, medicine now," Rey said. Finn felt a warmth go through him, different from the aching fire in his leg. Power shimmered in the shuttle, as it had back on Aurilon. The pain faded. Finn watched them as they worked, and he became aware that they were stronger when they combined their powers this way. Rey gained an otherworldly strength hinting at a depth of power she hadn't unlocked inside herself yet. Ren stopped being a radiating jerkwad with anger issues and seemed like a Jedi instead, no matter what he claimed.

He took another look at his leg, and discovered to his delight that the skin had healed, smooth and unbroken, not even any lingering ache left behind.

"Thank you," he said, before Ren could slide in another snotty comment.

Rey rested her hand against his leg, pride on her face. "You're welcome." Finn sat up, and meaning nothing more than a friendly peck, he kissed her. Her free hand held his chin before he could move, and Rey kissed him back much more deeply.

The pain was completely gone, replaced with a hot joy that had nothing to do with the fires they'd left down on the planet. Finn let himself sink into her kiss, enjoying the feel of her mouth against his. He'd been more than a little in love with her since the day they'd met. He'd longed to see her again for the months they'd been apart since.

But they weren't alone. He made himself pull away, and he said to Ren, "Sorry," though he didn't feel sorry in the least.

"Why? She's an excellent kisser."

Rey rolled her eyes. "Why do you always have to be horrible?"

"Because I'm good at it. I found my niche." He smiled humorlessly. "He already knows about us. You told him enough."

"There isn't an 'us,' Kylo. I like him."

"I know. You don't like me, but you need me and you want me. I neither need you nor like you, but I want you. It's simple."

"It doesn't sound simple," Finn said. Even when Ren wasn't being a stomping, menacing force of darkness, he was still obnoxious.

Ren rolled his eyes at Finn. Then he grabbed Finn's chin the way Rey had and kissed him. Finn's eyes opened in surprise. He went to push him away, and instead pulled him closer, letting his own mouth fall open to Ren's insistent push. He hated this man, yet from the moment he'd seen his face, even knowing all he did, and even after they'd tried to kill each other, Finn knew he wanted him, too.

"Simple," Ren said, with a triumphant smile. Jerk.

Finn turned to Rey. "Same question as before. Why can't we airlock him?"

Ren snorted in laughter then, and it was the weirdest thing of all. Finn could handle him as an evil dark lord bent on mass destruction. He could tolerate him as a fallen Jedi, filled with power and serving his own agenda as he saved Finn's neck. But seeing him laugh in a frankly dorky fashion, lips red and flush from kissing Finn, and a light in his eyes suggesting he would be happy to do a lot more? That was too weird for Finn to take.

"We're not airlocking him," Rey said, and she helped Finn to his feet. They held hands as he stood. "I've sent the message to meet us at Danoor. Our course will put us there in three days."

"Great," he said. "What will we do for...." Rey pulled him in for another kiss. That, he admitted, would be a great way to spend three days. He wrapped his arms around her, enjoying the feel of her.

Ren watched them from his crouch on the floor. Then he reached for Rey, kissing her lightly up her leg and side as he stood. He moved behind her, bending his head to kiss her neck as she kept kissing Finn. Finn felt an echo of the same wave of power they'd given off before. Maybe this was just their way of discharging their extra energy now. It was as good an explanation as any. He was sure his brain was about to shut down and not need any explanations soon enough, not with the way Rey's hand was roaming down his shirt, or the way Ren's hand snaked around her body to cup one breast, stroking it where Finn could watch before he brought up his own hand to stroke the other.

He didn't have the Force, or he was pretty sure he didn't. Nonetheless, he had a clear vision of the next three days. He saw himself buried deep inside Rey while she whispered his name into his neck. He saw himself standing against the bulkhead, Ren on his knees with his mouth sucking Finn down like water. He saw Rey riding Kylo Ren in the shuttle's small bunk, and saw himself stepping up behind her, gentle and trembling, ready to fill her completely as she shrieked and urged them both on.

He saw it all as he kissed her. He could stop it now, if he chose, but if he kept kissing her, that was the path they would go down, fired by the curious energy between the Jedi and the simple desire they both felt for Finn.

"We should stop," Finn said into her mouth or wanted to say. The word that came out was, "More."

Rey said, "We'll be more comfortable if we go back to the bunk."

She was right.

end


End file.
